After bursting onto the scene by winning the U.S. Figure Skating Championship and earning a spot on the 2018 Olympic women's team, Bradie Tennell had options for her training.

The 19-year-old Carpentersville native could have gone to any number of elite training facilities or relocated to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

That's not her style, however.

Tennell has spent the run-up to the Pyeongchang Games where she's training the past 10 years — at Twin Rinks Ice Pavilion in Buffalo Grove.

"It's really cool to still be here and be on the Olympic team," Tennell said. "My theory has always been if it's not broke, don't fix it. I love this area. All my friends are here, so I never felt the need to move."

Tennell's coach since day one has been Denise Myers. Tennell is the first Olympian for Myers in her 36 years of coaching, and she's trying to maintain the same routine the pair has had all along, with a normal 4:30 a.m. wake-up call.

"We're trying to keep things as normal as possible and take it one day at a time," Myers said. "We have our daily plans for each day and we're trying to stick with it."

Tennell started skating when she was 2. Neither she nor her mother, Jean, can recall why Bradie was so adamant about skating.

"I kept asking and asking, so she looked in the Yellow Pages for the nearest rink to my house," Bradie said. "She took me skating, and I never wanted to stop."

Eventually, Tennell made her way to Twin Rinks, where Myers started to coach her.

"She's always been very driven," Myers said of Bradie. "She loved to skate. You could see that from an early age."

The hard work continued through the years, resulting in a junior national championship in 2015, when Tennell started to believe becoming an Olympian could be a dream that could actually come true.

Some tough years followed, though. Twice Tennell had to wear a back brace dealing with stress fractures.

"It motivated me to work harder and be stronger, and I think I did that," Tennell said. "I really just hung on to the fact that I knew it wasn't a career-ending injury and people come back from far worse. I'm not one to shy away from a challenge."

"I think the turning point for me was at the beginning of the season," Myers said. "She was healthy. She was able to train."

The proof that a big year was in the offing came on Jan. 5 with Tennell's stirring national championship performance in San Jose, Calif.

"It was amazing," Tennell said. "When I watch my program, I still get chills. It's indescribable, that feeling."

Tennell and Myers say they are just fine-tuning her programs before heading on Feb. 5 to South Korea, less than a week after Tennell's birthday on Jan. 31. Figure skating begins Feb. 11 with team competition at the Gangneung Ice Arena.

"I really don't think she's overly concerned about expectations from anybody else," Myers said. "She has a standard that she set for herself. Together, we know what she wants to accomplish."

Those talks have not included winning a gold medal.

"No, I'm just going to enjoy the experience and do the best I can, but it would be wonderful," Tennell said.

Myers knows that no matter what happens in South Korea, people haven't heard the last of her star pupil.

"I'd say you're going to see her for a long time," Myers said of Tennell. "She has not yet reached her peak. This won't be the end of her."